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The Takeover Reviews

But The Takeover is also quite shallow and a movie that doesn't want the audience thinking that much.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 9, 2022

If you’ve never seen a Sandra Bullock thriller from the ’90s, it’ll all seem new to you.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 6, 2022

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The takeover, common sense media reviewers.

Some gun violence, strong language in hacker thriller.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Protect your friends and yourself when being hunte

Mel is an ethical hacker and tries to do good with

The hero is Dutch, White, and a woman. The main ca

Some gun violence, blood, and fighting. People get

Frequent strong language includes: all variations

Parents need to know that The Takeover is a Dutch thriller about an ethical hacker, Mel, who stumbles into an international crime conspiracy. She's quickly framed for murder and hunted by police and criminals who want her dead. There's a fair amount of gun violence, fighting, and people being chased. Main…

Positive Messages

Protect your friends and yourself when being hunted by an international crime organization. Ethically hack criminals.

Positive Role Models

Mel is an ethical hacker and tries to do good with her skills. Her mentor, Buddy, is also a decent person, even if he kept lots of money that was supposed to go to victims of crime. Thomas is also a good guy, just trying to help.

Diverse Representations

The hero is Dutch, White, and a woman. The main cast is Dutch and White. A few people of color round out the supporting cast.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Some gun violence, blood, and fighting. People get shot a fair amount, and bodies often fly through the air. A few times, people get shot in the head, and once, graphically, as the man's head snaps back when shot. A camera video of a man getting shot in the head is shown many times, but the film is grainy. Some corpses are shown with bullet holes in them. There is police violence, fist fights, and people get kicked, thrown, hit, and hurt. Main characters are under constant threat, danger, and are chased often, on foot, in cars, etc. Men with guns break into a woman's apartment. Men threaten to kill people. A runaway bus crashes into many cars, and people get hurt.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent strong language includes: all variations of "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "damn," "Jesus," and the middle finger.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Takeover is a Dutch thriller about an ethical hacker, Mel, who stumbles into an international crime conspiracy. She's quickly framed for murder and hunted by police and criminals who want her dead. There's a fair amount of gun violence, fighting, and people being chased. Main characters are constantly under threat. A few times, people get shot in the head, and once, graphically, as the man's head snaps back when shot. A camera video of a man getting shot in the head is shown many times, but the film is grainy. Some corpses are shown with bullet holes in them. There's a lot of strong language, which includes: "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "damn," "Jesus," and the middle finger. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

In THE TAKEOVER, an ethical hacker (Holly Mae Brood) uncovers an international crime conspiracy. She is soon framed for murder and hunted by dangerous criminals and the police. Will she clear her name and uncover the conspiracy?

Is It Any Good?

There's a lot to like in this quick, pacey, thriller. But The Takeover is also quite shallow and a movie that doesn't want the audience thinking that much. Illogical inconsistencies bring down the believability of a lot of what happens, especially the denouement where the film literally turns into Speed (the Keanu Reeves classic). Not very much is explained, either, regarding the actual conspiracy, how "the Chinese government" is exactly behind all this, or why Interpol isn't interested. Thus, the movie doesn't want a thinking audience, but nor is the movie made for the oppositely inclined. Surface-level thriller is written large across the board, so to speak.

Fittingly, the characters seem to be drawn thinly, with each person's role and purpose clearly delineated. No character ever surprises or does something unexpected, so they become simple functions of moving the story along. This is a little limiting, given that the film could've had more personality if the characters had more personality. Yet, this isn't the fault of Holly Mae Brood's performance as Mel. She does what she can with a very restricting script and thin character. But the story does move along quickly.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about violence in thrillers. Did the violence in The Takeover make it more exciting? Why or why not?

Would you have gone to the police like Thomas wanted to? Why or why not?

Do you think the film depicted hacking culture well, accurately, or convincingly? What are some examples you can point to that would support your answer?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : November 1, 2022
• Cast : Holly Mae Brood , Geza Weisz , Frank Lammers , Susan Radder
• Director : Annemarie van de Mond
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 87 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Takeover

Where to Watch

Mary Tabor (Maya) Samantha Wesley Schanz (Stephanie O'Brien) Dojo Turnbull (General James O'Brien) Wes Holland (Ellis) Donterrius Ruff (Dr. Marsen) Drew Ater (Asher) Kimberly Nicole Monique Twiggs (Ava) Joe Swift (Granger) Joe Ballew (Derrick) Morgan Petersen (Val)

Trent Harris

Follows the struggle of Maya, a stubborn defiant vampire, in a volatile battle between her own kind, humans and davvers.

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The Takeover (2022) review: Straightforward yet engaging hacker film

‘The Takeover’ is a Dutch action-crime film that follows Mel Bandison, an ethical hacker who rushes to prove herself innocent after being framed for murder. It is now streaming on Netflix.

The plot begins with an encounter between Mel Bandison (Holly Mae Brood) and Buddy Benschot (Frank Lammers).

10 years later, Mel has become an ethical hacker who provides final certifications for software. She continues to take down those who hurt the environment on the side.

During a certification test, she finds someone accessing the data unethically. To counter this, she sends out a trojan horse to disrupt the hackers.

This causes a ripple effect that results in mysterious men chasing Mel. She also comes across a video circulating on television that shows him murdering someone.

Thomas Deen (Gaza Weisz), her date, is also embroiled in the entire conspiracy. To help her out of this mess, Mel seeks the help of her old friend Buddy. Will she be able to clear her name?

Performances

Holly Mae Brood gives a decent performance. Even though her character does not have great depth, she brings out the endearing personality of Mel and makes you root for her.

Gaza Weisz and Frank Lammers are the only other actors with enough screen time to make an impression and the two support Brood adequately.

The entire ‘hackerverse’ concept of The Takeover is extremely engaging. One after another, ethical hackers are introduced and their world is explored.

With a crisp runtime, The Takeover never slacks at any moment. It is fast-paced and intriguing enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The equation between Mel and Buddy is handled well. Right from their first interaction, you know this relationship is important.

This does prove true later in the film as he is the only one Mel can turn to for help. Their friendship is one of the highlights of the film.

The narrative is extremely simple. No character development is even attempted. While the short runtime helps to keep the film engaging, there is not much to challenge the viewers.

Some plot points and characters aren’t explained well. For example, the culprits aren’t given enough background and the character of Rogers is just thrown at the viewers without enough information to show how dangerous he truly is.

The Takedown is quite an engaging film that has no dull moments. However, it never truly achieves the heights that a film based entirely on the world of hackers could.

The Takeover

Director: Annemarie van de Mond

Date Created: 2022-11-01 17:32

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The Takeover

By Terry Sherwood | September 7, 2023

Before Bram Stoker, “vampire” had an almost universally female connotation in society: the femme fatale, the lustful seductress, the woman who would lead someone to ruin, drawing devotion like an addiction.  The Takeover , written by director Trent Harris and Cameron Wingo, takes a female vampire, Maya (Mary Tabour), waging a volatile action-filled battle between her kind, humans, and “davers” (cadavers) to rule a post-apocalyptic world.

In this vampire world, the blood supply has been stymied due to an attempt to destroy the vampires who kill the food source, a.k.a. humans. The ensuing fallout created zombies. There is a superweapon that dispenses with the traditional stake in the heart and sunlight, replacing it with a simple one-shot incineration that works on each entity vying for a place on the planet. The battle for it is on, as whoever controls the weapon can destroy the others and reign supreme.

“…a female vampire [wages] a volatile action-filled battle between her kind, humans, and ‘davers’ (cadavers) to rule a post-apocalyptic world .”

The vampires of  The Takeover  do not possess a fear of garlic, religious symbols, or sunlight, nor do they sleep in their native soil. The writers obviously are drawing inspiration from  The Walking Dead  and  Underworld  series, in which lycans battle vampires and humans for supremacy. Maya fights and is dressed in leather, a la Kate Beckinsale’s Selene, although not quite as form-fitting.

Roaring along, mixing comic book outrageous violence like left or right cross punches to render vampires, zombies, and humans alike unconscious with a single blow,  The Takeover  offers a bleak vision of science. No one is safe from the intrigues as Maya is fighting for survival. She finds she must work with humans, even those she is at odds with. Dojo Turnbull resembles a younger Chuck Norris in fatigues as the tough-talking, punching, no-nonsense General O’Brien. However, he’s allowed to show his tender side on a mission to set the world right for personal reasons.

The Takeover moves swiftly through the action as many people cross Maya’s path in her quest to save vampires from extinction. The actors come off as being sincere in a lot of the dialogue-heavy scenes, which dispenses with the usual technological/mysticism babble that can get in the way. The result is a budget-conscious battle between two supernatural clans with the humans in the middle. Plenty of fisticuffs, gunplay, and martial arts are shown, though there is a limit on practical gore effects. Harris’ film  is a good diversion from traditional vampire lore, placing the human and undead on equal footing to battle the real bloodsuckers, which is military science in this case.

The Takeover (2023)

Directed: Trent Harris

Written: Trent Harris, Cameron Wingo

Starring: Mary Tabor, Samantha Wesley Schanz, Dojo Turnbull, etc.

Movie score: 7/10

"…moves swiftly through the action..."

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Review: The Takeover (2022)

Image: ©Netflix

Streaming on Netflix from today is the Dutch thriller, The Takeover . The movie – directed by Annemarie van de Mond – stars Holly Mae Brood and Geza Weisz, and follows the story of a hacker who is framed for murder.

In the movie, Mel Bandison lives in Rotterdam, where she works as one of the Netherlands’ best computer hackers. Operating in secret, Mel spends her days hacking into systems, testing out security, and working on sensitive projects.

One night, while sat at her computer, someone breaks into Mel’s home. The unwelcome intruders are specifically looking for Mel and when she realises who they are after, she flees the property and heads to the nearest police station.

But the police prove to be no help and Mel quickly regrets getting in touch with them. And to make matters worse, a short while later she is framed for a murder she didn’t commit.

Fearing for her safety and wanted by the police, Mel goes on the run, while trying to figure out why her life has suddenly been turned upside down. What follows is a race against time to prove her innocence and fight for survival.

Unfortunately, Mel’s fight for survival is largely uneventful, which is the best way to describe this movie. While The Takeover is watchable, and it can certainly pass some time should you find yourself at a (very) loose end, it isn’t particularly exciting, nor is it something to seek out.

The main problem with The Takeover is that this is a by-the-numbers thriller, which has been done many times before, and often in much better ways. Just off the top of my head I can think of a number of better hacker thrillers, including The Net (1995), Enemy of the State (1998), and Swordfish (2001) to name but three, and while they might be dated by today’s standards, they are far more interesting to watch.

The issue is, The Takeover has no imagination or originality, and no creative flair. It does exactly what you expect it to do, doesn’t push any envelopes or break any new ground, and this means there is no incentive to dive in and give it your time.

In terms of action or drama, there’s a bit of running here and there, the odd car chase, a few scenes of people looking serious and/or concerned, and a runaway bus. The bus sequence adds some last-minute peril, but again it is all very generic.

On the plus side, the cast are largely fine, with Holly Mae Brood doing her best in the role of Mel, but no one is really given anything exciting to do and no one is really challenged. Everyone involved in the film required a much better script, but it clearly wasn’t available.

At times, I feel like the film wants to be better than it is, and it is competently made, but there’s just nothing going on here. Unless you’re the world’s biggest hacker enthusiast, and you’ve exhausted all of the cyber movies from the past, do yourself a favour and watch something else .

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The new Netflix film The Takeover revolves around a software hacker Mel Bandison (Holly Mae Brood), who lands herself into deep trouble after blocking the operations of a criminal group. The film is directed by Annemarie van de Mond and is written by Hans Erik Kraan and Tijs van Marle. Primarily, the flick is available in the Dutch language, with English subtitles.

The cast of the film includes Holly Mae Brood as the professional hacker, Géza Weisz as Thomas, Frank Lammers as Buddy, Noortje Herlaar, Lawrence Sheldon, Walid Benmbarek and Susan Radder. Moreover, it has a running time of one hour and twenty-eight minutes.

Narcos is probably the finest crime show that captures the complete trajectory of the drug kin pin Pablo Escobar. The show is based on his epic criminal rise in the drug world, and later his eventual downfall by the continuous actions of the forces of law. There are a total of three seasons in the show, with an equally brilliant spin-off. It stars Wager Moura in the lead role of the crime lord, and Pedro Pascal as Javier Pena. Moreover, you can stream it on Netflix.

-The Takeover Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-

The film starts with a 16-year-old Mel Bandison hacking into the military operating system just to prevent a jet noise. The young hacker gets caught red-handed by Buddy, another professional techie, who spots the exceptional coding genius inside her. Years later, Mel becomes a seasoned online Robin Hood, who exposes corrupt individuals and organizations while transferring the money to their original source.

One day during her daytime job, she spots a random bug inside a facial recognization driven bus and immediately blocks it with a trojan horse. She leaves for a date with a guy named Thomas, having literally no idea about the impact of her actions.

Eventually, the bad guys behind the bug, make it their life purpose to kill and defame Mel for the rest of her life. Thereby forcing the hacker to race against time and expose the real elements behind the whole operation. Now, Will Mel be successful in her mission? Well, the answer is pretty obvious if you have watched enough genre movies like this.

At first, the plot of this hacker-on-the-run movie sounds like your average coding thriller, with the usual trajectory of the events. But if you look deeper, you will find that it is absolutely the case. There is a hacker with exceptional skills, a father-like figure whose fate is already sealed, and a guy who has no clue about the involvement whatsoever.

Also Read: Liked The Good Nurse? 4 Eddie Redmayne Films Everyone Should Watch

The film is conventional right from the start and fails to add an element of intrigue. It performs all the typical genre pieces and succumbs to weak execution. Moreover, the film predominantly falls under the action-adventure category, rather than a hacking-based feature.

In fact, the parts where the hacking takes place are artificial and significantly dumbed down. Which makes the USP pointer another random segment of the flick. The only focus seems to be directed towards the thrilling chase and the dramatic climax.

However, the role of Buddy (played by Frank Lammers) is the only light in this otherwise dull show. His character, no matter how cliche, works towards the redemption arc and is mostly successful at it.

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The Takeover Final Thoughts

The film is a lacklustre show throughout its short runtime and does not generate any excitement. It is another rendition from the genre, with no time for original innovation. All in all, The Takeover falls well behind the bar of an intriguing movie.

You can stream the film on Netflix. Let us know your thoughts about the action-adventure film in the comment section below.

Also Read: Movies Releasing in November 2022 Week 1: Phone Bhoot, Enola Holmes 2, Mili and More

• Frank Lammers
• Holly Mae Brood
• Lawrence Sheldon
• Noortje Herlaar
• The Takeover
• Walid Benmbarek

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The Takeover film review: Fastpaced hacker thriller can’t avoid genre cliches

If you dig action thriller stereotypes served with a twist of hacker suspense drama, the film is good enough for a one-time watch.

Cast: Holly Mae Brood, Frank Lammers, Geza Weisz, Susan Radder, Walid Benmbarek, Noortje Herlaar, Lawrence Sheldon

Director: Annemarie van de Mond

Language: Dutch with Hindi and English audio options

Hacking, facial scan abuse and data theft mingle with old-school murder and blackmail in Annemarie van de Mond’s Dutch thriller, which unfolds as an uncomplicated potboiler despite its twisted undercurrent pertaining to cyber intrusion of privacy. The Takeover spins a story of suspense that would mostly seem familiar, though the film is fast-paced enough to keep you engrossed all along. You spot influences as varied as Eagle Eye , Enemy Of The State , The Net , Swordfish and — in its breakneck finale — a busload of stunts that might seem like a cyber-age update to the Keanu Reeves -starrer Speed . The overall mood is almost a trifling one, as if underlined by the pop electronica beats that backdrop the early title scenes.

The plot centres on ethical hacker Mel Bandison (Holly Mae Brood), who works with a small like-minded group that tracks criminal hackers and then turns them over to the cops. The leader of the group is Buddy (Frank Lammers). Mel’s job requires her to hack into systems, run security checks, deal with delicate data and retrieve stolen data for clients. Action in her story starts soon enough when a couple of strangers break into her home one night, obviously intending to kill her.

Mel escapes and goes to the police station seeking protection, but is in for a shock. It seems like she is wanted by the police and she soon realises why. Horrified, she finds herself staring at a news TV footage that shows her killing a man. Chased by dangerous people out to kill her and wanted by cops for a murder she never committed, Mel is now on the run. She realises she must clear her name but time is not on her side.

The whys and wherefores of Mel’s plight, of course, have to do with her job as a hacker, and the basic challenge for screenwriters setting up a narrative around a technical subject as hacking is to keep the storyline lucid enough for the lay viewer to grasp and yet avoid getting too dumb about it. The film’s writers Hans Erik Kraan and Tijs van Marle try finding a solution by introducing a character that is far removed from the world of hacking, and throwing him into the thick of action. So, Geza Weisz as Thomas Deen, Mel’s awkward date from the night before, gets dragged into her misadventure. Thomas’ significance as a sidekick in the screenplay is mainly restricted to wailing for explanation on the technical jargon that Mel and her pals exchange. In turn, these technical aspects are explained for the benefit of the audience, through dialogues of the hacker ‘experts’ on screen.

The narrative gets Mel on the run quite early, within less than half an hour. For a film with a tight runtime of 87 minutes, you would think the actual story, meant to unfold over the final hour, would be packed with spectacular action and twists. It isn’t, and that is the film’s big shortcoming.

Interestingly, the story, which banks on the topic of cyber privacy and personal data theft, manages to set up a Chinese connection in the villainy that it sets up. We understand early on that Mel has inadvertently messed with some very powerful people while trying to execute a hack job to protect one of her clients. A Trojan Horse she introduced to safeguard her client’s interest affected a multinational firm named Xiao Ming, among others. The firm uses facial scan technology to collect personal data from its global consumer base and then passes on the same to the Chinese government. This particular aspect of the script could have led to a cracker of a thriller. Instead, the narrative merely uses it as a plot pusher, to line up the requisite quota of villains in Mel’s story.

Director Annemarie van de Mond’s execution is quite basic: It is about raising a few problems for the protagonist in the first half and then tying up the loose ends in the second. Although the narrative maintains pace all through, the film could have done with a lot more smart twists. Neither the storytelling nor the directorial treatment of the film reveals ambition to push the generic envelope. The Takeover has it all, from choreographed stunts to FX-loaded chases. Yet, it is all too formulaic and reminiscent of a countless such sequences seen on screen before. If the film was meant to be a generic tribute, it doesn’t fulfil the criterion simply because it lacks in imagination. Technically, the film is salvaged by Willem Helwig’s cinematography, which renders an authentic vibe to the action scenes, and Fatih Tura’s crisp editing that ensures there are no boring spells all through the runtime.

To set up drama of convenience, the makers primarily bank on the cliche that every time Mel is being chased by someone she will outrun the villain/s against all odds. The film moves on a linear track that solely focuses on the suspense quotient, so despite its feel-good vibes there is little room for humour (“In movies, the hackers they show are thinner and younger,” Thomas tells Mel, upon seeing the chubby Buddy in the odd comic scene). Neither is there much scope for romance, unless you count Mel and Thomas discussing codes amidst psychedelic lights. It is a screenplay that doesn’t offer challenging roles to its cast, though Holly Mae Brood as Mel exudes bankable screen presence. Brood tends to overdo herself in the odd scene of melodrama but she sure strikes a neat kick in the action sequences.

The Takeover is worth your time if the hacker-verse intrigues you. The film is engaging in the way it sets up action drama around the concept. A runtime of 87 minutes was never enough to delve deep into the cyber mystery the storyline sets out to explore, and the makers have been practical enough to restrict the drama to formulaic physical action of an on-the-run caper. If you dig action thriller stereotypes served with a twist of hacker suspense drama, the film is good enough for a one-time watch.

Rating: * * & 1/2 (two and a half stars out of five)

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist, and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR.

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The Takeover ending explained – how does Mel prove her innocence?

We discuss the ending of the Netflix film The Takeover (2022), which will contain major spoilers.

The Takeover is a safe action thriller on Netflix that uses classic tropes and doesn’t offer much excitement or intrigue but makes for an easy watch.

The film begins with a man driving to an army base, listening to classical music. He looks like a geeky dad, and as soon as he enters, he sets to check out the system errors they’re experiencing. He’s a hacker. All units start to shut down, and as he types furiously, he discovers where the hack is coming from. To everyone’s surprise, it’s local. They find that a sixteen-year-old hacker, Mel ( Holly Mae Brood ), was hacking into the military operating system just to prevent jet noise to help the local seals. Buddy, clearly impressed, makes a deal that if she tells him how she did this, he will tell her how he found her. 

Jump forward to ten years later, while in her day job, Mel spots a random bug inside a facial recognition-driven bus and immediately blocks it with a trojan horse . Hacking into a serious database, Mel has crossed the wrong people, who then release a fake video that “shows” her murdering someone, framing her, and putting the police on her trail. Mel is now on a mission to hide from the police and clear her name. 

The film follows her doing all it takes to prove her innocence, despite the consequences. Mel goes into hiding with the guy she had the bad blind date with, Thomas. As he’s not a hacker, and with this great fake, Mel needs all the help she can get. This leads her online friends to say she needs Buddy to help clear her name. Mel refuses to contact him. We learn this is because she has previously turned him in to the police, so he is also a wanted man too. 

On the run, Buddy finds Mel, and all three now try to decipher who is blackmailing her. They discover that Mel hacked the Chinese government, and they do not want anything Mel discovered to come to light as it will cause international drama. They’re trying to ruin Mel’s reputation so no one would believe what she said/found. 

Eventually, the bad British villain Rogers kills Buddy, and Mel’s lover-boy is captured by the police. Mel flees to go back and re-enter and re-hack the company she did at the beginning to find the evidence to exploit them to prove her innocence. While hacking, she is found by Rogers, who points a gun to her head. In true maverick style, she manages to escape and run away. 

Only towards the end do we have a small fight before Mel is captured . Rogers begins to shoot at the computers in the server room, causing the servers to crash and the driverless buses on the streets to malfunction, putting people’s lives at risk. 

Mel takes the police to prove her innocence and then attempts to hack into the bus to stop it from running. Thomas becomes the action hero we needed and wanted in this film as he steals Buddy’s car and hijacks the bus to help slow it down and stop it before it reaches the river. Together they manage to stop the bus and save everyone. 

The final scene sees Mel working on her laptop, getting a message from Buddy, which is automated if he’s not online for three days which means he’s probably dead. Buddy is telling her he’s proud of her and wants her to change the world. Mel and Thomas sit by the river. Mel puts her arm around him, then challenges him to three more laps. They run off camera and we cut to the credits. 

This film does have a strong female protagonist, who begins the film being independent and driven, and even when helped by other male characters in proving her innocence, the character doesn’t lose these qualities. Mel is helped by a man who she once outsmarted and then by a dumb guy she ran out on, on their first date. This is smart, although, in the end, it doesn’t feel as if her character learned or developed into anything; her story arc was quite poor. 

The ending of The Takeover has the drama and action we needed from the start, and as well as saving herself, Mel is able to save the lives of innocent victims, making her a true, nerdy hero. After this, she is able to go back to her life, trying to make the world a better place by hacking. This film does make hacking seem more positive and something that can have a good influence on the world, which is not the way in which we’ve viewed and been shown hackers in the past. 

The whole film is a cat-and-mouse chase, the focus being on the running rather than the hacking itself. For an action-thriller, it lacked a lot of intrigue and excitement, as when you’re running, you’re not confronting or fighting. The ending is a happy one, with Mel clearing her name and making a new friend. 

What did you think of the ending of the Netflix film The Takeover (2022) ? Comment below.

Article by Romey Norton

Romey Norton joined Ready Steady Cut in June 2021 as a Film and TV writer, and since then, she has published over 400 articles for the website. With a Master of Arts Degree from the University of Leeds in 2017 and acting experience on screen, Romey uses her Film and TV knowledge to bring informative and detailed content for online publications and podcasting.

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The Takeover (2022) Ending Explained – Does Mel prove her innocence?

The takeover plot synopsis.

The Takeover is a thriller that revolves around coding and hacking. The film’s protagonist, Mel Bandison, is a tech expert by day and an ethical hacker at night. She takes up a job with a company called Rotramax, to do a final check on the software of their self-driving bus. But she finds a pipeline put there by hackers. With a few clicks of her fingers, Mel sends in a Trojan Horse, blocking the hackers from accessing the bus’s data.

Unfortunately, this one act leaves her the target of a dangerous criminal organisation and blackmailed by a British man named Rogers. When she finds herself framed for a murder, Mel is forced to take the help of Thomas, a man she went on one date with, and go on the run.

Why were Rogers and his organisation after Mel?

Rogers and his organisation release a fake video of Mel shooting a man dead, which sends the police after her. Unfortunately, the video quality is too good for Mel to prove it’s a fake. Needing the talents of an expert greater than herself, Mel and Thomas seek out Buddy Benschot, who was once Mel’s mentor.

Buddy is able to track the code used to hack the bus back to the real perpetrators — it’s none other than Xiao Ming, the software company that helped create the bus along with Rotramax. He figures that they are going to use the bus’s facial scanning software to gather sensitive data about people and sell it to the Chinese government.

How does Mel plan to stop them?

Mel realises that when she entered the bus, it scanned her face, and that’s how they were able to produce the video of her. She makes a plan to hack back into the bus and find proof of the scan which will help her take the fake video apart. Thomas doesn’t agree with her plans and they part ways, with Thomas giving himself up to the police.

But when Mel reaches the server room in Rotramax’s office, Rogers comes out from the shadows and pulls a gun on her. He threatens her, telling her to put in the encryption for the Trojan Horse but Mel turns the lights out and escapes. Before giving chase, Rogers fires shots at the server. It goes up in flames and the bus, currently filled with passengers on its first-ever run, loses control. Meanwhile, Rogers and Mel engage in a fight until the police come onto the scene.

Does Mel stop the bus?

Mel and Detective Daoudi, who has been investigating her, reach the server room and put out the fire. When they realise the bus is out of control, Mel says she can hack it and make it stop. She contacts her other hacker friends but they tell her the bus will need a receiver.

Coincidently, Thomas leaves the police station in Buddy’s car and calls Mel. Mel tells him to take Buddy’s transmitter, which is in the car, and connect it to the bus. With a daring leap from car to bus, Thomas makes it inside and connects the transmitter. Mel hacks the bus, stopping it right before it reaches the edge of a bridge.

Does Mel prove her innocence?

After stopping the bus, Mel brings up the scans of her face taken by the bus, thus proving to Detective Daoudi that the video is fake and she is innocent.

What happens to Rogers?

As Mel walks out of the building we see an injured Rogers being attended to by the medics while a policeman stands by him. It’s safe to assume that Rogers will get what he deserves.

How does The Takeover end?

One day, Mel receives a message from Buddy. It’s a pre-recorded message that was directed to go to her, should Buddy pass away. In the video message, Buddy tells her how he cherished his time with her. He says he used the money he stole to build a network, for Mel. He says it’s large enough for her to target multinationals, government leaders, and billionaires. He tells her to go change the world like she wanted to.

The film ends with Mel and Thomas going for a run together, the exchanged glances between the two suggesting a hint of romance.

Read More: The Takeover Movie Review

Feel free to check out more of our movie reviews here!

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Meet The Takeover Cast: who's who in the Netflix thriller

Meet the major players who make up The Takeover cast.

Here's a rundown of the stars that feature in The Takeover cast.

The Takeover is a Dutch action-thriller from Annemarie van de Mond that's just dropped onto Netflix . The film follows Mel Bandison, an ethical hacker who lands herself in hot water after tackling a data breach for a high-tech, self-driving bus.

In defusing the breach, Mel unintentionally closes down an international crime network; her life is soon flipped upside down as she ends up being framed for a murder that she didn't commit. From there, she goes on the run and seeks out some close friends as she tries to prove her innocence. 

Read on to find out who the major players in The Takeover cast are, as well as where you might know them from.

Who's who in The Takeover cast: Holly Mae Brood as Mel Bandison

Dutch actress Holly Mae Brood stars as Mel, the hacker at the center of The Takeover 's problems after shutting down the criminal network.

Where else have you seen Holly Mae Brood? Aside from The Takeover, Holly Mae Brood has appeared in Foodies, Life As It Should Be, Vicious, Dare, and the Dutch soap opera, Goede tijden, slechte tijden. She's also one of the presenters for the Flemish version of Love Island .

Géza Weisz as Thomas Deen

Géza Weisz plays Thomas Deen, a man Mel went on a date with. When the criminal organization comes after her, she seeks him out and tries to hide at his place, before the pair end up going on the run together. 

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Where else have you seen Géza Weisz? Weisz is a casting director and actor; he's had roles in All in Kitchen, Bluf, Bagels & bubbles, Help! I've Shrunk the Family, The East and Life Is Wonderful. 

Frank Lammers as Buddy Benschot

Frank Lammers features as Mel's former mentor, Buddy. She seeks him out when she starts trying to track down the criminals who are out to frame her.

Where else have you seen Frank Lammers? Lammers has had roles in Undercover, H4Z4RD, D-Railed, Black Book, Grenslanders, Amsterdam Undercover and Ferry. 

Noortje Herlaar as Linde van Erp

In The Takeover, Noortke Herlaar plays Linde van Erp, the CEO of the company behind the self-driving bus that Mel inspects at the start of the film.

Where else have you seen Noortje Herlaar? Noortje has appeared in both The Hitman's Bodyguard and the sequel, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, as well as LOIS, Modern Love Amsterdam, Zuidas, The Body Collector, Just Say Yes and Romy's Salon . 

Lawrence Sheldon as Rogers

English actor Lawrence Sheldon plays Rogers, the villain of the piece. He works for the criminal organization that Mel interrupts, and orchestrates her framing in exchange to try and get her to fix the network's disruption.

Who else stars in The Takeover? 

The Takeover also stars Susan Radder and Walid Benmbarek as two of the officers who are tasked with Mel's case and tracking her down.  There's also  Kok-Hwa Lie as Suk Mo Chen, Carly Wijs as Richelle, Thomas Dudkiewicz as Jay, and Kyra Smith as Yu-Jin.

The Takeover is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. For more to enjoy on the streaming service, check out our guides to what's new on Netflix this month and the best Netflix series you can stream right now.

Martin was a Staff Writer with WhatToWatch.com, where he produced a variety of articles focused on the latest and greatest films and TV shows. Now he works for our sister site Tom's Guide in the same role.

Some of his favorite shows are What We Do In The Shadows , Bridgerton , Gangs of London , The Witcher , Doctor Who , and Ghosts . When he’s not watching TV or at the movies, Martin’s probably still in front of a screen playing the latest video games, reading, or watching the NFL.

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‘The Takeover’ Ending, Explained: How Does Mel Prove Her Innocence? Is She Able To Stop The Rotramax Bus?

“The Takeover” is an action thriller film that bases itself mostly around random fast keyboard-clacking to signify efficient hacking skills and throws in some fight sequences to complement it. The story follows an ethical hacker by the name of Mel, who stumbles across ill-intentioned software codes and is then chased around by the evil hackers across Rotterdam. Everything in “The Takeover” is superficial, and there is hardly anything to take away from the film, but it holds fairly mediocre value if watched solely for mindless entertainment.

Spoilers Ahead

‘The Takeover” Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?

A Dutch military base faces a serious security issue every week as its servers and computers are hacked by some group of miscreants on Wednesdays, at a very particular time of 3 in the afternoon. In order to put an end to such a threat, the officials appoint the best ethical hacker in the place (possibly even the whole country), known as Buddy. The professional works his way through the data and codes at the time of the breach to find out the exact location of the miscreants. While the military feared the hacks to be from Russian or North Korean enemies, the job turned out to be done by a single teenage girl called Mel Bandison. When the authorities go to potentially arrest Mel, Buddy accompanies them as well, much to the girl’s jubilation since the hacker was someone she always admired and looked up to. Mel reveals that she had been hacking the military base solely because she felt military activities were harmful to nature and was let off after serious warnings.

Ten years later, at about twenty-six years old, Mel Bandison works as an ethical hacker for a security company that reviews and passes certifications of safety for any new software being made available to the public. As part of her job, she visits a company in Rotterdam called Rotramax, which has come up with a new self-driving and self-guided bus to be introduced shortly on public roads. Mel checks through the codes of data that essentially drive the bus but finds an anomaly in the form of a data breach code that is not supposed to be present. She consults with her supervisor and ultimately sends a Trojan Horse virus the other way to stop this breach, and in the process, hacks into the computers of the criminals, making them display a middle finger on the screens, which has been her personal style always. However, shortly after this, two men break into Mel’s house with guns and a photograph of her with them, and she somehow manages to escape. Mel goes to the police for help but finds out that an even more sinister plan is in the works against her. With the police also wanting to arrest her, Mel now has to find a way to escape this trap set by the cyber criminals.

How Does Buddy Help Mel Out? Who Had Hacked Into The Rotramax System?

The reason how Mel is suddenly made public enemy number one happens to be that the criminal hackers had used face scans of the woman to create a deep-fake video of her shooting a man dead in Rotterdam, whereas they had got the murder committed by someone else. This video, in which someone resembling Mel is shooting the gun, is leaked all over the news and media, and this also makes the head of police, Dries Daoudi, start a search for the woman. While Mel had initially gone to the police, she had noticed the two goons who had broken into her house at the place too, which meant that they were either working closely with the police or were part of the police force and worked with the hackers too. In order to escape both these forces chasing her around the city, Mel takes help from a recent date of hers, Thomas Deen. Although Thomas is more of a simpleton when it comes to hacking and other technological shenanigans, the young man helps Mel out throughout and accompanies her on her path to escape. It is very clear to Mel that in order to save herself from this ordeal, she needs to get rid of the fake video, or else she will surely be arrested by the police. But reaching this video and finding out more about it is really beyond her technical skills, and for this reason, she now decides to reach out to her old master, Buddy, after many years of no contact.

Although Buddy and Mel had been very close for years after her acts of hacking into the Dutch military base, the two had fallen apart in recent times due to a particular incident. After the two had become friends, they used to conduct regular hacking of corrupt and immoral companies that would make profits by harming others and stealing their money. While they had decided to use this stolen money as donations for the people or entities being harmed, Mel found out that Buddy had not donated this money but had kept it for himself. Extremely angry with the man for doing so, Mel informed Interpol about this and led the authorities toward Buddy. The master hacker quickly had to go into hiding, for what they were doing was essentially illegal, and he had not been in contact with Mel ever since. It is to be mentioned here that Mel’s own moralist endeavor of doing right had continued, as even at present, she had come together with two other ethical hackers to hack into corrupt businesses and donate all their funds to charity. But with this scenario of immediate danger now working as a huge disruption, Mel contacts Buddy, and the man does respond by coming to meet her. He takes her and Thomas to his safehouse near the Dutch-Belgian border and starts looking into the really well-made deep-fake video and its mysterious source.

Gradually, as Buddy digs out more information, a bigger picture of conspiracy starts to emerge, and it takes Mel by surprise. The self-driving bus company, Rotramax, had been doing business with a software company called Xiau Ming, which was a Chinese multinational company with no ill repute. However, although Xiau Ming had investments in other European companies as well, what was unknown was that the company was actually using a data mining tool in the software codes of these invested companies. In the case of the Rotramax bus, the cameras fitted on the bus were supposed to collect facial data of all passengers and match them with police and other safety records to make sure that the self-automated vehicle and its passengers would not get into any situation of danger. But Xiau Ming and its cybercriminals had been collecting this facial data and matching it with other databases such as health and legal records, along with breaching people’s public phones and home security cameras too, to then sell the entire data package to the Chinese government. As Mel had put a sudden and untimely stop to this whole operation with her encrypted Trojan Horse virus, the hackers had decided to directly attack the woman and take her down. Mel immediately informs of this insanely dangerous privacy breach to police officer Daoudi, but the officer refuses to call off the police search for Mel. But in the meantime, the criminal hackers locate her and Buddy and decide to pay them a visit.

Mel grows certain that the only way the hackers could have gotten such a good image of her face was through the cameras of the Rotramax bus, which had scanned her face when she had gone for the inspection. She decides to return to Rotterdam to get hold of this video of her face from the Rotramax databank, and just as she is about to leave the safe house, the hackers barge into the place. Led by a British man named Rogers, these attackers directly work for Xiau Ming to bring Mel down, but the woman hides herself and Thomas in time, and Rogers kills Buddy. Mel then rushes to the Rotramax compound and breaks into its server room, where it is once again Rogers who stops her from getting hold of her video. Making use of quick hacking skills that turn off all the lights in the room, Mel escapes death while the police also arrive on the scene. Rogers is aware that the Rotramax servers have proof of data breaches that would easily incriminate his clients at Xiau Ming, so he puts fire to the servers. However, Daoudi and his police force are quick to arrive on the scene, and they capture both Rogers and Mel. The woman now pleads her case once again and asks for one chance to prove herself. Daoudi is convinced, and they enter the server room to put out the fire and then Mel goes through the data codes. This fateful day had also coincidentally been the same day for the first public trial of the Rotramax self-driven bus, with the councilor of the city also a guest in this trial. However, with the servers put to fire, the bus had lost all control and was now rushing forward on its predestined route, ramming away any other vehicle or obstacle that was coming its way. Mel sees this opportunity to further help her cause, as she now promises to hack into the bus’s software codes and bring it under her control.

‘The Takeover’ Ending Explained: Does Mel Bring The Rotramax Bus To A Stop Before Grave Danger?

While Mel appoints her two hacker friends on the case and also receives help from Thomas, the hackers at Xiau Ming hack open the Erasmus bridge, which falls in the predetermined course of the bus. With the bridge open, the bus and its passengers would dive into the water and die, perhaps making Rotramax look at fault and also destroying the camera evidence on the bus. It is not that Rotramax was unaware of Xiau Ming’s privacy breaching code that was part of their software, as the company had received money from the Chinese investors for particularly letting a code of data run inside its system. However, when Rotramax then realized the gravity of the situation and threatened Xiau Ming to control its actions, it was the Chinese investors who turned threatening against the company, and Rogers had issued direct personal threats against the CEO of Rotramax. Back in the present times, together with the help of Thomas and her two hacker friends/associates, Mel brings the bus under control and stops it right before it is about to make a plunge into the river. She shows Daoudi the real video of a different man committing the murder and explains to him how her face had been planted on the man’s body in the video. She then also brings the malicious privacy-breaching software to everyone’s attention and manages to save herself as well as all the passengers on the bus.

‘The Takeover” relies a lot on an extremely superficial portrayal of hacking and convenient action scenes. Whether the fact that her face matched with the video of a perpetrator committing a crime as grave as murder, even though other evidence did not match at all, could get Mel most definitely charged with murder needs further questioning. Even though the major drama of the film is over by now, there is one last remaining necessity—to clear any negative image of Buddy. Shortly after the previous events, Mel receives a prerecorded video message from Buddy in which the man tells her what he had actually done with all the money they had stolen. The man had seen great potential in Mel’s work and was also a supporter of her noble cause of looting the corrupt rich to give to the poor. But in order for Mel to successfully make that happen, she needed the proper framework and resources to hack into multinational companies and corrupt governments. Buddy had used the money to create this framework and resources for Mel, and the woman now happily continues on her path of ethical hacking with her new lover, Thomas, by her side.

“The Takeover” is a 2022 Drama Action film directed by Annemarie van de Mond.

• Action Thriller
• Drama Thriller
• Streaming on Netflix

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One Piece's Las Vegas Sphere Takeover Is Perfectly Timed for Toei's New YouTube Channel Launch

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The One Piece anime series is gearing up for a momentous takeover of the Las Vegas Sphere in North America. This highly anticipated event will also serve as the soft launch of the first official One Piece English YouTube channel.

Per a press release, Toei Animation has announced that it will soft launch a new global One Piece YouTube channel aimed at English-speaking viewers. The new channel will be the home for official news, information and special video content related to the world of One Piece . Fans can subscribe to the new YouTube channel in June, as its soft launch will coincide with the upcoming One Piece takeover of the Las Vegas Sphere in Nevada.

Crunchyroll Reveals Massive Anime Expo Lineup Featuring Solo Leveling, One Piece and More

Crunchyroll has a veritable bounty planned for Anime Expo 2024, including exclusive sneak peeks and special panels for hit shows like Solo Leveling.

One Piece's Las Vegas Sphere Event Will Feature a Special 4-Hour "Takeover"

Monkey D. Luffy and his friends will be featured in the Exosphere from Monday, June 10, to Sunday, June 16, 2024. A 90-second-long anime spectacle, exclusively created for the Exosphere activation, will premiere during the week-long extravaganza. The Las Vegas event will also feature a special four-hour-long "takeover" on Tuesday, June 11, between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. (PST).

The new Exosphere celebration is part of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the One Piece anime series, which premiered on Oct. 20, 1999. Previously, the first North American One Piece café likewise opened in Las Vegas, featuring meals and decor based on the popular anime series.

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One Piece Continues to Expand Its Reach on a Global Scale

Just as the Dragon Ball franchise continues to expand its reach internationally, the One Piece series is also making its mark worldwide for its upcoming anniversary. For example, One Piece is partnering up with Major League Baseball and the Boston Red Sox for a one-night-only event in late August. More announcements regarding the anime series will be made at this year's Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California, from July 4-7, and on One Piece Day , which is set for Aug. 10 and 11 at the Makuhari Event Hall in Japan.

The One Piece anime TV series and movies are available to stream via Crunchyroll, Netflix and Hulu. Viz Media is the English distributor of the manga. Season 2 of the live-action One Piece TV series is currently in production for Netflix.

Created by Eiichiro Oda, the One Piece franchise explores the adventures of pirate Luffy D. Monkey and his crew, the Straw Hats. Since the manga first debuted in 1997, One Piece has been adapted into an ongoing anime that has seen multiple movies. Most recently it was adapted into a live-action series by Netflix.

Source: Press release

Ashton Kutcher Says Soon ‘You’ll Be Able to Render a Whole Movie’ Using AI: ‘The Bar Is Going to Have to Go Way Up’ in Hollywood

By Ethan Shanfeld

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Ashton Kutcher looks at OpenAI’s generative video tool, Sora, as the future of filmmaking.

“I have a beta version of it and it’s pretty amazing,” Kutcher said of the platform in a recent conversation with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Berggruen Salon in Los Angeles.

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“Why would you go out and shoot an establishing shot of a house in a television show when you could just create the establishing shot for $100? To go out and shoot it would cost you thousands of dollars,” Kutcher said. “Action scenes of me jumping off of this building, you don’t have to have a stunt person go do it, you could just go do it [with AI].”

Kutcher added that, while playing around with the software, he prompted Sora to create footage of a runner trying to escape a desert sandstorm.

“I didn’t have to hire a CGI department to do it,” Kutcher said. “I, in five minutes, rendered a video of an ultramarathoner running across the desert being chased by a sandstorm. And it looks exactly like that.”

VIP+ Analysis: Sora Videos Easily Confused for Real Footage in Exclusive Survey

Referencing a new processor from Nvidia, which is supposedly 30 times as performant as existing software, Kutcher said video-generating platforms like Sora are about to become exponentially better.

“You’ll be able to render a whole movie. You’ll just come up with an idea for a movie, then it will write the script, then you’ll input the script into the video generator and it will generate the movie,” he said. “Instead of watching some movie that somebody else came up with, I can just generate and then watch my own movie.”

Sora sent ripples through Hollywood when OpenAI released preview footage in February. Not everyone is optimistic about the burgeoning software: Tyler Perry, for one, halted an $800 million studio expansion project in Atlanta after seeing what Sora could do.

“There’s got to be some sort of regulations in order to protect us,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “If not, I just don’t see how we survive.”

Perry added, “I just hope that as people are embracing this technology and as companies are moving to reduce costs and save the bottom line, that there’ll be some sort of thought and some sort of compassion for humanity and the people that have worked in this industry and built careers and lives, that there’s some sort of thought for them.”

Now dig into a VIP+ subscriber report …

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What to stream: Get ready for upcoming slate of summer sequels

Like most summer movie seasons, 2024 is lousy with sequels. Last weekend we saw “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment of the “Bad Boys” franchise, take over the box office, and one of the buzziest titles of the summer is “Furiosa,” the prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road.” This weekend, “Inside Out 2” hits theaters. So here’s a quick streaming guide on this summer’s sequels, and where and how to watch or rewatch everything you might need to catch up, from family-friendly animated fare to horror franchises.

As mentioned, “Inside Out 2” comes out Friday. The first film, 2015’s “Inside Out,” directed by Pete Docter, is on Disney+ or available to rent on other platforms.

At the end of June, “A Quiet Place: Day One” will tiptoe into theaters. This third installment is a prequel to “A Quiet Place” (2018) and the sequel, “A Quiet Place Part II” (2021), which were both directed by John Krasinski and are available to stream on Paramount+ or for rent on other platforms (“Part II” is also on Hulu). This third film is written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, who wrote and directed the critically acclaimed “Pig,” and stars Lupita Nyong’o as a woman attempting to survive the initial alien invasion in New York City.

In time for Independence Day weekend, the fourth movie in the popular “Despicable Me” franchise will release on July 3. Catch up with the first three movies all on Peacock, though if you’re a parent you likely don’t need the refresher. Our antihero Gru also features in “Minions: Rise of Gru,” so perhaps take in that film on Prime Video or rent them all on Amazon or iTunes.

July 5 sees the release of Ti West’s “MaXXXine,” the third slasher film in his “X” horror film series starring Mia Goth. “MaXXXine,” the sequel to “X,” is set in 1985, and follows Goth’s Maxine as she makes her way to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of stardom after the massacre in Texas in 1979. She of course then encounters the Night Stalker killer in L.A. “Pearl” is the prequel film, set in 1918, with Goth playing the title character (and the film’s villain), who also appears in “X.” Watch “X” on Netflix, Showtime or rent it elsewhere, and catch “Pearl” on Prime Video or rent it on other platforms.

In mid-July, the long-awaited sequel to Jan de Bont’s 1996 storm-chasing disaster picture “Twister” spins into theaters. “Twisters” is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who directed “Minari,” and stars new Hollywood It Guy Glen Powell alongside a host of up-and-coming stars. Revisit “Twister” before the new movie by renting it on all platforms.

On July 26, it’s a Marvel mashup with “Deadpool & Wolverine.” You may want to revisit the potty-mouthed superhero played by Ryan Reynolds in “Deadpool” (2016), which is on Max and Disney+, or “Deadpool 2” (2018), on Disney+, or catch up with the lethally clawed mutant played by Hugh Jackman. He’s in most of the “X-Men” movies, all streaming on Disney+. Or you can stream “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) on Max, or rent “The Wolverine” (2013) and “Logan” (2017) on other digital platforms.

Finally, the Aug. 16 release of “Alien: Romulus,” directed by Fede Alvarez, is a good enough reason as any for a full rewatch of the “Alien” series (it’s always a good time for an “Alien” rewatch). So here goes: “Alien” (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, is streaming on Hulu; “Aliens” (1986), directed by James Cameron, is on Max and Starz; the underrated “Alien 3” (1992), directed by David Fincher, is on Hulu; and “Alien Resurrection” (1997), by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is also on Hulu and Starz. Let’s skip the “Alien vs. Predator” films, and then go straight into Scott’s return to the franchise, with “Prometheus” (2012), on Hulu and Apple TV+, and his “Alien: Covenant” (2017), which is available to rent on all platforms. Whew. It will be worth your while.

There are of course some sequels and remakes in the fall that you may want to rewatch a few things for (“Beetlejuice,” “Joker,” “Venom,” “Gladiator”) but here’s what you need to prep for this summer’s sequels and prequels.

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